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Monday, April 24, 2017

Nothing left to do.

What if you had nothing else on your to-do list? What if your projects were finished, loose ends all tied off?

Would you be satisfied? Content?

Working, being busy, accomplishing things, all of those make us feel pretty good. We may complain about having so much to do, may wish we had less to do, but activity makes us feel like we are doing something. We are making progress.

But what if you were done?

Would you make up something else to do? Buy a book, dream up a new project? Would you entertain yourself, try out some new recipes?

Our mind quickly moves away from nothing left to do, right? So much fills the gap in time and space. Just as things are starting to settle, starting to be resolved, just as we are getting to done, something else comes up. It is like a quantum vacuum state, it is never truly empty, something is always coming up.

The same can be said for the nature of mind. As we sink into the nature of our own mind, we realize its profound peace and clarity, but it is never truly empty. The clarity aspect always gives rise to appearances, whether they are sights, sounds, thoughts, sensations. We never reach completely empty space.

So can we ever have nothing left to do?

The answer is how we relate to appearances, to what is coming up in our experience. If we fixate and grasp after appearances, then no, we will forever spin the wheel of conditioned existence. If we can see through appearances, recognize their true nature, then we can experience freedom upon arising. Things are free in their own place, nothing left to do. You can start to enjoy doing and not doing. When doing, things are free in their own place. When not doing, they are also free as they arise.

Nothing left to do becomes the path of doing and not doing. Doing or not doing, you find you don't need to struggle.